True Love's Kiss
by iggyfing
Summary: She finds him in Radiant Garden with white hair and golden eyes. From there, things transpire a little differently. One-shot. Happy Valentine's Day!


"Terra!"

The name leapt from her mouth as her heart leapt in her chest. Even from this distance she could identify the distinctive set of his shoulders and spiking of his hair. The silver of Xehanort's influence only made him stand out more.

He turns to her as she jogs down the ramp to join him in the main plaza.

His eyes cause her to draw up short. Once a deep, thoughtful blue, they now glint gold and piercing. This clash of familiar and unfamiliar causes her throat to tighten.

She misses his brown hair.

Stepping forward tentatively, she holds his gaze. She tries to speak, but the tightness in her throat strangles the words. She coughs. "Terra?"

His brows — silver-white as his hair — furrow in question. "Who are you?"

His voice is too deep and it crushes her heart.

He takes a step towards her which she matches with a step back, but he reaches out and catches the belts that cross her chest. She resists as he pulls her closer, but to no avail. Sheer strength had always been his advantage.

His eyes are searching, almost pleading as he asks, "Who am I?"

She pauses in her struggle and answers his desperation with a look of confusion. He really didn't remember anything?

Who knew those cunning golden eyes could look so lost?

She juts her chin confidently despite the sting of this pyrrhic victory pricking needle-sharp against her soul. "You won't win," she asserts. "Terra _will_ beat you."

He jolts in shock, his gaze unfocusing. "Terra?" He says the name like a betrayal. Like a wound.

He staggers a step back with a grunt of what she desperately hopes is pain. The hand not tightening a white-knuckled grip on her cross-belts clutches the side of his head. He groans through his teeth.

She places one hand on his wrist, the other on his shoulder, drawing herself closer. "Terra, I know you're in there. You have to fight it!"

Black fire flares around him in a halo of darkness, framing his form. She nearly recoils, magnetically repulsed by the stench of it, but she is so close. Somewhere in that darkness, Terra's heart still lives. She can feel it. The barest fringes of Terra's light linger like warmth in her fingertips.

She can reach him.

He staggers again, the hand in his hair straining tighter.

"Terra!" she calls again.

His gaze returns to hers and just there, behind the gold, she can see him.

"_Just as long as you love him,"_ Yen Sid told her of Ven. She sees no reason it shouldn't also apply here and now. All those worlds, and whenever true evil reared its ugly head, it had been love that won out.

Curses undone by a kiss.

She closes the last bit of space between them and presses her lips to his. Her hand moves to the side of his face. Her eyes are tightly closed, willing, kissing, _loving _him free of the darkness. Calling his heart to hers.

He is perfectly still, neither rejecting nor reciprocating.

She doesn't dare open her eyes or pull away. The thought of his eyes meeting hers with anything but blue is unbearable. _Come back,_ she implores in desperate prayer. _Please, come back to me. _

How much time had she wasted? How much energy had she spent trying to catch up to him?

They should have been Masters _together_. Instead, he fell behind.

And she let him.

It was nice, having a definitive win in the competition between them. An end to the previously endless striving. Now, though, she'd give anything to go back. Nothing is worth this loss.

She feels warmth, a light she can see without her eyes. Fingers fold gently into her hair. He kisses her back.

A sob of giddy laughter runs up her throat. Her eyes sting with relief. She blinks them open and has to squint against the vibrant golden light that edges his every feature.

She happily closes them again, casting an arm around his neck and curling her free hand around one of the belts that cross his own chest, pulling him nearer even as he is to her.

Just for this moment, all that was wrong between them has been put right. He is strong and resplendent and _good_, everything she ever believed he was, and she loves him.

They part and the tears run hot down her cheeks. His hair is still white, his eyes still gold, but the set of his brows and the softness behind those eyes are all Terra. He is ringed in a halo of light. He brushes the tears from her face. His lips tilt into a quiet, sad smile.

When he opens his mouth to speak, she knows by the sound of his breath that it will be his own voice.

"Goodbye, Aqua."

He shoves her away with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs. The ground is no longer beneath her feet. She's flying back, propelled by that same strength that had drawn her near just moments before.

Cold betrayal knots in her stomach and she is only just able to land upright. Her boots scrape against the stone ground as she skids to a halt.

A barrier flashes up between them.

"No!" She stumbles forward, hand outstretched. Her open palm slams against the flickering transparency, jarring her wrist as her body catches up. "Terra!"

Within and beyond her reach, he staggers, both hands clutching at his head.

Rising panic quivers just under her skin. Stepping back quickly, she summons Stormfall and levels it at the barrier. Her magic flares, fueled by the dread she's already too late. "Fire!" Flames crackle out from her hands, along her weapon, and swell into a thunderous inferno that leaves a knot of cracks in its wake.

He's screaming. The sound is muffled, but his mouth is gaping wide and she can see the cords in his neck drawn taut from the strain.

"Hang on, Terra!" She squares her stance and fires again. More cracks. Not enough. Again.

His whole body seizes and spasms in turns and there are still not enough cracks in the barrier.

She strikes at the heart of the cracks. Withdraws, strikes again. And again. And again. Over and over and _over_ until her palms sting and her shoulders ache. Breathing hard, she takes a step back and braces, both hands wringing Stormfall's hilt. With a cry, she hurls all her weight into a single piercing thrust. The tip of her Keyblade jams against the barrier. Still it holds.

Only then does she notice the cracks are knitting back together.

He's keeping her out.

"_Goodbye,"_ he'd said.

A numb sort of terror settles like a stone in her gut, and her gaze moves past the disappearing cracks to where he is now straightening slowly from his contortion. His shoulders heave with every breath.

He turns to face her, and there's nothing left of Terra in the spiteful triumph that twists his face.

The barrier shatters.

"_Goodbye, Aqua."_


End file.
